chapter 3 MINUS 1 Flashcards
- What can happen if you don’t define your measurement properly?
a. Your data could contain bias.
b. Your data could be inaccurate and inconsistent.
c. Your results could be questioned in a court of law.
d. All of the above.
D
- Which of the following are examples of measurements?
a. The gender of each member of your statistics class.
b. Your opinion on whether smoking should be banned in all public places (support, oppose, no opinion).
c. The number of deaths in each state in a given year due to accidents.
d. All of the above.
D
- How much can respondents’ answers to survey questions change based on simple changes in wording?
a. They won’t change much at all; changes in wording have little impact on the data.
b. Answers can change a great deal, even with small changes in wording.
c. The wording would have to change in a major way, but if it did, the answers would change as well.
d. None of the above.
B
- Which of the following is not one of the pitfalls that can cause problems when asking questions in a survey or experiment?
a. Deliberate bias
b. Desire to please
c. Ordering of questions
d. All of the above are pitfalls
D
- What is the biggest problem with having open questions on a survey or in an experiment?
a. The participants’ responses are difficult to summarize or categorize.
b. You have to worry more about how an open question is worded than how a closed question is worded.
c. There is no problem with open questions; they provide the most accurate information about how a person really feels.
d. None of the above.
A
- What is the biggest problem with having closed questions on a survey or in an experiment?
a. The choice of possible answers is critical and if not done properly, can lead to misleading information.
b. The participants’ responses are hard to categorize or summarize.
c. There is no problem with closed questions; they provide the most accurate information by offering certain explicit choices.
d. You have to worry more about how a closed question is worded than how an open question is worded
A
- Which of the following is an example of an open question?
a. “Which of the following four issues do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today? If you prefer, you may name a different problem as most important; simply choose ‘other’ and explain your answer.” (Four choices are given, plus ‘other’.)
b. “Don’t you think it’s time that we faced the fact that unemployment is the biggest problem facing this country today?” (Choices are: yes, no, no opinion.)
c. “What do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today?” (No choices offered; participant must fill in the blank.)
d. None of the above.
C
- Which of the following is an example of a closed question?
a. “Which of the following four issues do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today? If you prefer, you may name a different problem as most important; simply choose ‘other’ and explain your answer.” (Four choices are given, plus ‘other’.)
b. “Write down in one or two sentences how you feel about this statement: The biggest problem facing our nation today is a lack of presidential leadership.”
c. “What do you feel is the most important problem facing this country today?” (No choices offered; participant must fill in the blank.)
d. None of the above.
A
- How can a measurement lead to misleading results in a survey?
a. If the measurement leaves out obvious other possible choices.
b. If the ‘no opinion’ or ‘neutral’ results are combined with either the positive or negative results to make that group appear larger than it really is.
c. If the questions are worded in a misleading way.
d. All of the above.
D
- What is the most common method for trying to measure attitudes and emotions?
a. Have respondents read certain statements and determine the extent to which they agree/disagree with the statements.
b. Use totally open ended questions in a face to face interview.
c. Have participants evaluated by a psychotherapist.
d. None of the above.
A
- How important is the wording of the question in terms of getting a good measurement in a survey or experiment?
a. Extremely important. Poorly worded questions can lead to bias and inaccuracy.
b. Only somewhat important; it’s the essence of the issue that matters.
c. It shouldn’t matter at all. A question is a question.
d. It depends on the situation.
A
- The U.S. Government regularly reports the unemployment rate. Which of the following is included in the U.S. government’s definition of what it means for a person to be unemployed?
a. They don’t have a job.
b. They have been actively looking for work in the prior four weeks.
c. They are currently available for work.
d. All of the above are included in the definition.
D
- Which of the following is not an example of a discrete variable?
a. The number of coins in a person’s pocket right now.
b. Your exact age.
c. The number of heads that could appear on two flips of a fair coin.
d. All of the above are examples of a discrete variable.
B
- What motivates a respondent to understate the true response about an undesirable social habit such as smoking?
a. Wanting to create deliberate bias
b. Desire to please
c. Lack of memory
d. None of the above
B
- The U.S. Government regularly reports the unemployment rate. Which of the following is included in the U.S. government’s definition of what it means for a person to be unemployed?
a. They don’t have a job.
b. They have been actively looking for work in the prior four weeks.
c. They are currently available for work.
d. All of the above are included in the definition.
D
